Monthly Archives: August 2010

Do you remember this clip from Saturday Night Live from a few years back? Will Ferrell, as George W. Bush, listing his ‘Axis of Evil.’ Hilarious stuff, as pretty much everything (Evil Knievel even) joined his Axis. Well now, not to many people’s surprise, Oracle joined the OSS world’s Axis of Evil. For years we had Microsoft and Apple, but lately, Microsoft seems to be the OSS darling, Apple still is evil, but just harmless, and Oracle trumps them all. What happened, and why should educators worry? Well, database company Oracle, which is quite popular, but loathed, recently purchased Sun Microsystems. Sun developed many products, including the popular Java programming language, Open Office, the popular and free office suite, Virtual Box, the free virtual machine software we reviewed here: http://www.k12opensourceclassroom.org/?p=114, and other open source projects.

When Oracle made the purchase, we all began to sweat. Now that they made it, we are starting to see their intentions. They filed patent infringement suits right away against Google for infringement of Java on Android. They splashed their name all over VirtualBox and Open Office, and we hear rumors that they want to take some of these products closed source. Make a buck, make a buck. What will probably ultimately happen in many cases, is the projects forking. Oracle keeping theirs, and a continued OSS version. That will be fine, but we will lose the expertise of the Sun/Oracle developers. You really cannot majorly fault Oracle (although we will), as they do just what a business should. When you get to it, all businesses work to make money. Some in just different ways. This acquisition, though, will really stifle creativity, and the looming battle of Android could ultimately change the number one mobile OS. Just as I get my Evo. Time will tell, but we will watch this battle closely…

What will they think of next? On the heels of Google Video Talk, you now can place calls from your browser to landline and cell lines. This reeks of Skype and other VOIP software, but you would be foolish if you did not see this coming.

So now you can dial phones right from your Gmail page. You need to download the voice plugin (if you did not already use it for Video chat), and it DOES come in Windows, Mac, and Linux versions. My screenshot shows me using it in Ubuntu.

So why excited about this in education? Think of the ability for students to call whoever they need, right from their browser. They can call historical sites, distance learning teachers, travel agencies, businesses, etc. Just with a set of headphones/microphone.

Yeah, I know, Windows on Windows. So sad this does not come default with Windows, and not just XP, but their mighty Windows 7. I NEED my multiple desktops. I like a VM up on one desktop, the browser on another, maybe a document on a third, and of course, WinAmp or music on a fourth.

So why does Windows not come with this by default? Well, it appears they have some kind of add-on, PowerToys for XP, but not as slick as Dexpot. I recently downloaded it (http://dexpot.de/index.php?id=home) and it truly amazed me. Lots of additional features, even beyond what Linux and Ubuntu offer. As you see, I like my toolbar on the left side of my screen, hidden, and when I hover, it shows me all four of my desktops, and I can quickly click which I want. I can also use a special key combination, but I have never been the type to remember those, so the toolbar hovering will work. With all the many applications educators use in a day, I would think this would work well. In our state, we have a data management system that they use all day long. With that, teacher email, a plethora of proprietary student software, they could definitely benefit from Dexpot.

Yet another reason why the time has passed for closed source operating systems. We need these features by default. We should not need to add third party apps (although Dexpot is GOOD stuff) to get what I now refer to as basic functionality.

I always possessed the need for a good app to organized my events, send me reminders, allow me to add reminders by email, etc. I may have discussed Sandy awhile back. I Want Sandy organized me very well. It truly was like she read my mind. I could go to the site and add reminders there, I could email them directly to her, I could cc her on emails, when I used Twitter, she was there. Then about two years ago, she went away. Ahh…the longing…

Since then, I bounced around a bit. Ping Me kinda helped, but it also went away this year. Reqall is my current option. It works as well. I can see all my reminders, I can complete reoccurring tasks, it even comes with a Blackberry and Android app…but it is not quite what I need.

Now I am giving Task.fm another look. ‘Outsource your memory’ is their tagline, and I definitely subscribe to that. I will give it a whirl for a week or so to see, and then decide on abandoning reqall or not. No Android app that I can see, so I would need to go through the browser. Not impossible, but a little less than convenient.

I guess I bring this all up to highlight the importance of open source. When a project releases its code, and if the bottom falls out of said company, the community can fork that project and keep it alive, if someone values it. With proprietary software, that cannot happen by design. So we become accustomed to I Want Sandy, Ping Me, and others, and when they close or fold, we are out of luck. Another reason why we need open source more than ever.

So, a week into my Evo. I continue to be just as impressed as my first impression. This phone, and Android in general, just so get my way of consumption. The camera is amazing (8 mp)–I can actually just point, it zooms/focuses, and I take really decent pics. The apps it comes with work, along with HTC’s Sense UI…some nice and easy add to widgets.

I have been downloading apps like mad. Trying ones, deleting others, just trying to get a sense of what you can find out there. Here are my favorites so far:

TasKiller–an OS that supports multiple apps running at the same time is a great idea. However, if you never close ones, it can slow down your phone pretty quickly. I went ahead and downloaded TasKiller for both phones. It makes it easy to see what’s running in the background and quickly in one step kill the process.

Google Maps Navigation. While in Beta, I think I like this better than Sprint’s Navigation. It looks most like the traditional Garmin GPS interfaces, finds directions quicker, and has the backend of Google information to pull from when planning routes, looking for restaurants, etc.

and for a little fun…

Old Skool Gamin' on the Evo

Super K.O. Boxing. Remember Mike Tyson’s punch out? While Super K.O. provides you with a similar game. Lots of fun punching on folks…great work stress reliever…